We had to land at the edge of the city. Partially because Devin looked green and ready to throw up- but also because there was an electric field around the city that kept me from flying out. We’d have to go through one of the gates like everybody else.
I chose the most used gate, because there had been more than enough time for the others to find my message and start looking for me, and that gate was the last one they would suspect me to go to. Because people screamed, dashing out of the way when they saw my wings. Fear lit their eyes. I always hated that, when they looked at me like I was a monster just because some asshole labcoat had seen fit to screw with my DNA.
Granted, I was a hell of a lot more dangerous than they were. Even the guards, who pulled their stun guns out of their holsters as they headed through the crowd toward me, couldn’t beat me if I decided to really fight. I held my hands over my head instead. Hoping it would make me seem harmless, show that I wasn’t in danger of exploding and destroying them all in a shockwave of power.
“State your name, rank, and intention!” The guard’s voice was loud in my ear.
I kept my expression calm and cool. “Eli, Alpha Vital, on a mission as ordered by General Roman. You can check in with headquarters; they’ve given me permission to leave the city.”
“Vitals aren’t allowed to leave the city under any circumstances,” the guard growled, his gun pointed straight at my face.
The blatant disrespect made my upper lip curl in a snarl. “I just told you-”
“Devin Roman, Alpha Guardian. We are to leave the city under the General’s express orders. If you get in our way, I have permission to use any means necessary to carry out my mission, and protect my Vital, which you know full well. Unless you would like to test my aim?” Devin’s voice had the charming lilt to it that meant his smile was deadly.
I didn’t turn to look; the cold metal of his gun was a half centimeter away from my nose, and I didn’t want him to pull that trigger. “I would suggest you lower your stunner, officer. My partner has a short temper,” I said, my voice tense and sharp.
“Shut your face, you filthy-”
The shot rang out. The guard’s scream followed soon after, a howl of pain as he stumbled backwards. Devin had been merciful, for Devin; he had only shot the guard’s hand, forcing him to drop the stun gun. The guard didn’t even seem to be missing any fingers.
“Tch. Devin, you’re not supposed to shoot them until you have to.”
“I’m not going to stand idly by while they insult you,” Devin growled.
I turned to look at him, then. His clear blue eyes had darkened slightly, and he was almost threatening as he scowled at me. Gently, I wrapped a hand around his wrist and forced his arm down until the gun was pointed at the ground. “An insult isn’t going to hurt me, Devin. I’ve heard them all before.”
“I don’t care. That bastard needs to learn how to hold his tongue before I shoot it out of his fucking mouth.”
“Jesus, Devin, you’re scary when you go into mother mode,” I grumbled, pulling away from him and stalking to the gate.
The man in charge of the gate’s operation was nearly shaking in his boots as I thrust my hand under the scanner. The blue light flashed, taking a digital copy of my fingerprints. The light turned red for a moment before flashing green, the gates grinding open slowly. I walked through them without looking back to Devin. I knew he would follow as soon as his prints were scanned in, so I didn’t worry.
Not until I could hear the gates grinding shut behind me. My heart leapt into my throat, and I spun around; the gates closed before I could consider making a mad dash back into the city. I stared at them for a long moment before I finally turned back to the world I had always dreamt of.
It was nothing like my dreams.
I had forgotten, in all my longing for freedom, that my kin had destroyed the world in their blind furies. The world was dead. There were no trees, no bushes, not even a blade of grass. It was all dead dirt, stretching as far as I could see, all the way out to where it met the dusky blue of the sky. The emptiness, the loneliness of it, made me shudder.
“Not pretty, is it?”
Devin’s voice made me jump, whirling, my heart in my throat again. I had missed, in my focus on the world I hadn’t seen in fifty years, the grinding of the gate opening and shutting again.
“Why would anybody want to leave the city?”
“There is some fertile land that we managed to salvage after decades of genetical engineering. A couple of families stay out there to farm the land, others to run a few power plants we keep outside the city to keep the pollution level down. But most people who leave the city… want to die.” Devin’s voice had gone soft by the end of it, almost inaudible.
I couldn’t help thinking I had something in common with those people.
“Anyway!” Devin said briskly, clapping his hands together as if he were shooing the conversation away. “If you check your comm, my father said he would be uploading a basic map of the area surrounding the city. It won’t get us to where the Grey Blades live, but it will get us to the edge of the city’s reach, and give us a general direction to look in.”
I nodded, my fingers skipping across my comm. I ignored the insistent, blinking light in the corner; I wouldn’t open up communications, give myself a chance to change my mind and tell them where I was and what I was doing. I wouldn’t risk putting the rest of them in danger when I had left to keep them safe.
“I found it. Let me draw it out.” My fingers slid from the screen up into the air, pulling the map with them, the hologram shimmering in the dry air.
Devin moved close to me, looking over my shoulder as I held my arm up in front of us. “The surveillance cameras around the city have a pretty wide range. It looks like we’ll be able to make it pretty far before we have to rely on guesswork. I think if we head northeast, we’ll be able to make it to the edge of the map by nightfall.”
“No, we need to head south.”
“South?” Devin repeated, and I knew he was making a face.
“Yes, south, and you could sound a little less doubtful. Look at the tracks on the map; it looks like most of the activity comes from the northeast, but if you really look at it, you can tell- it’s always the exact same path. As if a route has been carved for them to follow so they can throw us off the trail. All the paths that take different routes, start in the south.”
I followed several of the trails with my fingers, showing him. He nodded, taking a step away from me. Letting the map collapse back into the comm, I dropped my arms, the slight buzz of the comm’s activity in my mind dying.
“Alright. So we go south.”
“Are you sure you want to just give in and listen to me?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him. It had never been easy to get Devin to agree to what I wanted. He always argued, bickered with me, fought against every words I said like each of them was an accusation that he was stupid.
Devin shrugged. “I don’t have as much practical experience tracking down the Soulless. You were the child soldier, so you ought to know better than me.”
“Right. I’m the war veteran,” I said bitterly. It wasn’t a title I was proud of, or wanted to be reminded of.
“Right! South then! Let’s get moving- we’re losing daylight!”
“Are you trying to piss me off?” I asked, making a face at him.
He grinned back at me, unapologetic. “Maybe just a little.”
He stumbled, grunting with pain as I whacked him with a wing- they always packed a heavier punch than my fists. “You can walk alone, then,” I sniffed.
I had launched myself into the air before I could protest, but I heard his heavy sigh following me, and I was snickering as I wheeled over his head while he began walking in the direction I had chosen.
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